Strawberries may cut breast cancer risk

In the war against cancer there are lots of foods that are known to be helpful, including leafy green vegetables and nuts and seeds. Now new research has shown that strawberries also have remarkable cancer fighting properties.

A team from Marche Polytechnic University in Italy used mice to get their results, adding an extract from the Alba strawberry to the diets of female rodents who had breast cancer tumours.

The equivalent to what the mice were eating makes up about a punnet of strawberries.

After five weeks on the strawberry diet it was found that the cancer hadn't spread, and in a lot of the mice the tumours had actually shrunk.

“We saw a significant reduction in the weight and volume of the tumour,” Marche Polytechnic University’s Dr Maurizio Battino said.

He added that this doesn’t necessarily mean the results will be the same in humans, though it is an exciting breakthrough.

Results have been published in journal Scientific Reports.

“The majority of diseases, including cancer, are complex, and involve complex interactions between cellular and molecular systems that determine the development of the disease,” Dr Battino continued.

“These results are without a doubt valid for understanding potential effects of strawberries on breast cancer and the molecular mechanisms involved, but they must be complemented with clinical and epidemiological studies to verify whether humans experience the same positive effects as we have observed in mice.”

Experts advise eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables to keep your body healthy, with guidelines recently suggesting adults consume 10 different varieties a day, five more than previous advice.